Saturday, February 6, 2010

One Bite Potato Skins

It's Superbowl Weekend! Yippee. Can you feel my enthusiasm? I am a girlie girl, football does not appeal to me in the least. (I know, men with nice rears in tight pants, I get it, still not watching.) My husband goes to a party every year at a friend's house (Thank Jeebus!) so I'm spared the day long analyzing about a game that hasn't even happened yet on the sports channels, the belching and the cloud of testosterone that fills the air on days such as these. But like a dutiful wife, and also cause I feel for the poor woman who does have to put up with the aforementioned items, I send along some snacks to keep the men-folk from rioting when their team is tanking.

This year my husband picked potato skins. I made them a couple of years ago and the guys loved them. The only complaint was that they were very filling (I made them using gigantic potatoes cause as we all know in man-world, bigger is better, right?) and with all the food that everyone brings, half of them were left behind cause they wanted a little bit of everything.

This year I got smart. I made tasty little one bite skins that they can pop into their mouths between spoonfuls of chili and mouthfuls of nachos. These work great for your little football fans too. Cheesy, bacony (is that a word?), and crispy, these will be a hit at your Superbowl party, or with a chick flick, which is what I'll be watching at kickoff time!

1. Prick the potatoes and arrange in a single layer of paper towel in the microwave and cook on high for approximately 3 minutes or until fork tender.2. Cut potatoes in half length wise and scoop out inside leaving a bit to give the skins some stability.3. Place hollowed out skins on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Place in a 350˚F oven for 10 minutes.4. In a bowl, mix the potato, cream cheese, cream and salt & pepper until combined and smooth.5. Stir in the cheese, bacon and onion and combine.6. Remove the skins form the oven and fill each one with the potato mixture.7. Return to the oven for 10 minutes or until potatoe mixture is heated through and cheese has melted.